Statement on Confederate Memorials: Confronting Difficult History

In recent months, many communities have been vigorously debating anew the impact, meaning, and propriety of Confederate memorials and symbols in the public space. We have received questions from across the political spectrum about our stance on this.

At the National Trust, we believe that historic preservation requires taking our history seriously. We have an obligation to confront the complex and difficult chapters of our past, and to recognize the many ways that our understanding, and characterization, of our shared American story continues to shape our present and future.

That goes for the Civil War, our nation’s bloodiest and most divisive conflict, as well. There are currently hundreds of monuments to the Confederate cause in America. They exist in 31 states, including far-flung places such as Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Montana. Schools and streets all over America bear Confederate names.

While some of these monuments were erected shortly after the war by grieving Southern families to honor the valor of fallen leaders and loved ones, many more were put in place for a more troubling purpose. Decades after the war, advocates of the Lost Cause erected these monuments all over the country to vindicate the Confederacy at the bar of history, erase the central issues of slavery and emancipation from our understanding of the war, and reaffirm a system of state-sanctioned white supremacy.

Put simply, the erection of these Confederate memorials and enforcement of Jim Crow went hand-in-hand. They were intended as a celebration of white supremacy when they were constructed. As recent rallies in Charlottesville and elsewhere illustrate, they are still being used as symbols and rallying points for such hate today.

We should always remember the past, but we do not necessarily need to revere it.

These Confederate monuments are historically significant and
essential to understanding a critical period of our nation’s history.
Just as many of them do not reflect, and are in fact abhorrent to, our
values as a diverse and inclusive nation. We cannot and should not erase
our history. But we also want our public monuments, on public land and
supported by public funding, to uphold our public values.

Ultimately, decisions about what to do with offending memorials
will be made on a case by case basis at the community level. Some
memorials can be moved, others altered, and others retained as seen fit.
Whatever is decided, we hope that memorials that remain are
appropriately and thoughtfully “re-contextualized” to provide
information about the war and its causes, and that changes are done in a
way that engage with, rather than silence, the past--no matter how
difficult it may be.

We should always remember the past, but we do not necessarily
need to revere it. As communities work to determine the appropriate
balance, we hope they move forward in a transparent, deliberative, and
inclusive way that embraces the complexity here, examines many possible
alternatives, and allows for a thoughtful community dialogue that gives
all sides a chance to be heard.

Here we share examples, resources, and tools to help communities broach the difficult and necessary conversations surrounding the future of Confederate monuments, and move forward in an informed and inclusive way that does justice to both the past and the needs and concerns of today.